It had been hell getting here, my veins pulsing with pain every time my heart, and the new "heart" that shady dealer put in my chest, beat. I paid the inn I was staying at in downtown Hargeon for the best room they had, and one that cancelled out noise going outward as well. Then I wrote several letters to those that knew me, pleading for company or help, and sent them out, and I hoped most of them made it. I disrobed, and found my veins pulsating with a blackness like necrosis, or rot, alongside the normal red. I spent the first couple hours by myself in the bathroom, heaving up the contents of my stomach, most of the time dry heaving, sometimes actually vomiting. Then I kept myself in my bed, and hoped the pain would pass eventually pass from my veins. I pulled the covers over me for a while, then pushed them away, repeating this for what felt like hours. My natural hair color kept shifting back and forth from its normal coloring, to a color like shadow, pulsating like this for hours before finally coming to a stop at my normal hair color. This didn't pass the amount of pain I was in, however. It kept burning like a sun was inside my chest, irradiating its toxic sunlight from the core fibre of my being outward, and yet it was like the opposite, cold, like the void, and hollow, like someone cut a hole through my chest. I kept on tossing and turning for ages, before I heard a creak at my door. I created some black silk bedclothes for myself, for modesty purposes, and turned to see who came in.

(To those who were invited, just please be as active as possible. Aera Tylidae)

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Who are we to Ourselves? I did not stutter, nor did I mistake my words. Who are we?Not Who am I to you, but honestly, Who are we to ourselves? What makes me, me? What defines us to ourselves beyond the conceptual vision of others? I wonder who we were, and who we could be...

Akane was at her home when the letter came. An ill omen letter. Aera was in danger, she needed help and was in the inn at Hargeon Town. Another letter from a friend indeed, this was a second letter from a friend in distress. Her friend Hatoru had send her earlier a letter, asking for help. But Akane was too late to save him, from what had consumed him. This time that wouldn’t happen.

She walked outside and whistled for Raimei who was grazing in the meadow. He trotted to her and whined “What is it?”. “Aera is in danger, we should go immediately to Hargeon!” She said, a tremble could be heard in her voice. “What is the matter?” Snorted Raimei. “It’s vague, she said something about a new heart. Something went wrong.” Said Akane, as she glanced one more time over the letter. “We should go now.” She saddled up Raimei, gathered some food and they were off to Hargeon.

She entered Hargeon when the last glimpse of the sun where visible, evening was upon them. They trotted through the town in search of the inn. She had never been there before so she couldn’t find it immediately. She forgot in reality too look at the boards that would have guided her to the inn. She finally found the inn, dismounted. Should I unsaddle? She though. Maybe I need to go somewhere in a hurry. “I you will have to keep the saddle on, sorry.” Said Akane, her voice hinted doubt. She entered the inn and walked to the innkeeper. “Where is Aera Tylidae.” She said. “Aera? You mean the girl? The girl with Orang hair?” Said the innkeeper. “Yes, yes that is her. Where is she!” Said Akane loud and desperately. “The poor girl is on level up in room 8. Are you a friend of her?” But Akane had already left and hadn’t heard what came after the number. She ran up the stairs and found the door with the number 8. Instead of nocking she opened the door instinctively, surprisingly it was unlocked and she entered the room.

"Akane." I said as Akane rushed in, seemingly incensed, or primed for combat. "Calm yourself, there's no danger. I merely wish to be in the company of those I call friends, so that this illness passes by faster. Worry not, the illness is not transferable. I merely made a bad decision that led to me having a second heart, well, sort of." I pulled back the sleeve of my arm, and exposed my arm to Akane, showing her the blackened scrawl that were the new veins sprawling throughout my skin. "This is what it's doing to-" I stopped speaking for a moment, and rushed to the bathroom, and emptied the contents of my stomach for what was the 4th time that day. I rinsed my mouth, and walked back out into the room, with an apologetic smile on my face. "I'm sorry for worrying you like that, by the way. This illness is taking its toll on my system." I sat down on the bed slowly, as my legs shook, and I groaned at the way I felt, feeling exhausted after less than no manual labor, exercise or normal. I waved her over, and asked: "You know, it's been a while since I've seen you, and you look a bit different. How've you been doing all this time?" I cocked my head a little, and the hair on my head flashed back to black for a moment, and so I said: "Don't worry about that, its been doing that since I got this second heart."

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Who are we to Ourselves? I did not stutter, nor did I mistake my words. Who are we?Not Who am I to you, but honestly, Who are we to ourselves? What makes me, me? What defines us to ourselves beyond the conceptual vision of others? I wonder who we were, and who we could be...

Akane entered the room in a rush and she saw Aera. She didn't hear every thing that Aera said in the rush but understood that there was no danger and that she wanted friends around. "You bought a second heart?" Said Akane surprised. Why would you need a second heart, my dear. She thought. She felt a thrill through her spine when Aera showed Akane the black veins. Then she took off to the bathroom to throw up. "Are you alright." Said Akane shocked and instinctively. Of course she isn't alright. Aera walked to the bed to sit and signalled her to come closer. She took her sword out and placed it placed it next to her when she sat next to Aera on the bed. "Yes, it has been a long while indeed. I had dyed my hair red once, but decided to keep my natural...." Aera's hair flashed to a black colour and back to normal. She was shocked by the unexpected turn of the hair that she jumped back up on her feet. "That is not healthy!" Said Akane with a higher pitched voice as usual. She didn't know what to do or how to help. "Should I get a doctor?" Asked Akane, there was an icy feel on her cheeks. They turned paler as she got worried even more.

I shrugged off the worry with nonchalance, chuckling lightly before clutching my hands together at my chest a small bit. "It's fine. The guy who sold me the "heart" said this would happen, and that my body would assimilate the thing after a while. He never said the assimilation would be kind on my system. When he sold it to me, he said it beat with the heart of a dragon. Kinda weird how it came back to bite me, huh?" I zoned out for a moment as I lost my train of thought. My chest burned for a moment, but then a noise at the door snapped me back to reality, and once more I lost my train of thought, trying to bury that sense of burning in that thing. The jarring noise at the door rose again, and I finally got up, and got a glimpse of the blackened veins all over my face, Making me seem worse than I felt. My body actually felt lighter and more responsive then usual, but that burning still resided in my chest, as I opened the door to see a figure standing there.

(Sorry about the quality, my mind is tired on no sleeps. Aera Tylidae)(Also, the social is open to adding a new person now. Join in if you're going to, if not, then, well... you're probably not reading this then. Huh, redundancy.)

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Who are we to Ourselves? I did not stutter, nor did I mistake my words. Who are we?Not Who am I to you, but honestly, Who are we to ourselves? What makes me, me? What defines us to ourselves beyond the conceptual vision of others? I wonder who we were, and who we could be...

Braided white hair, a simple, flowing blue dress...Regina Luxuria Alessa had not been in a situation that demanded socialization in weeks, her mind starved for social interaction. It was awful, needing to be social. Solitude had been fine, absolutely fine! But noo, she needed to speak to people. Ugh. And worse, she needed a place to sleep. The one thing she hadn't arranged during her travels was a place to stay, to sleep and eat and recuperate when she needed to do so.

Without really thinking of anything, though, the blonde found herself at a doorstep. One behind which she could hear muffled conversation. Out of curiosity (was there any other purpose?), Regina lifted a hand and knocked, twice, in rapid succession. Steeling herself, she plastered on a smile as the door opened to reveal --

"Dear lord, what happened to your face?" she blurted. A beat later, she made a sound that was something like she was choking, even though she clearly could breathe, and straightened herself. "My apologies." And that fake smile was back. "I was hoping to find a place to stay. Do you know anywhere of that nature?"

After hearing the spiel of words spew forth from this blonde girl's mouth like a waterfall falling unto the earth, I laughed and waved her in, and as she passed the door frame, I shut the door behind her softly, before going into detail about what was going on, who I was, and introducing them to Akane, and so on and so forth. "You know, you're rather weird, silly girl. You know this is an inn, yeah? You could literally go downstairs and get a room if you wanted." I chuckled for a moment, then, as soon as I was feeling a slight bit better, the burning in my chest grew hotter, more intense as I spoke, but, as not to worry Akane, I hid the pain behind the mask of placidity and continued speaking. "You never introduced yourself, by the way. Anywho, I'm just not feeling my best and I wanted some friends to comfort me. Also, how did you find your way here without seeing this is an inn, you must be rather distant at times for something like that to happen." After I finished speaking, the heat just grew in intensity, to the point where my mask of placidity broke, and liquid onyx spilled forth from the side of my face, spilling over me to the point it covered me. I sat there for a couple seconds before standing up, and turning to look in the mirror, and seeing scales, yes scales, made entirely from shadow on either side of my face, and torn clothing made from shadow covering my body, if that. "Oh. So he meant that literally, huh?" I said, right before passing out, shadowed form gone and replaced with the bedclothes I'd made not a couple hours prior.

(Sorry for wait on time, the post order will be as such, from me as the base point: )Base- Me.Next- Akane/Berggeit.Last- ReginaLux

Also, this is how the character looked just a moment ago. My sigg is another example.https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/1b/78/01/1b780137ddccb4f0a246f3f6621f46f3.jpg

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Who are we to Ourselves? I did not stutter, nor did I mistake my words. Who are we?Not Who am I to you, but honestly, Who are we to ourselves? What makes me, me? What defines us to ourselves beyond the conceptual vision of others? I wonder who we were, and who we could be...

Akane didn't know what just had happened, she was confused by what the white haired girl said. By the gods, how! What! She thought. All she could do was nod when Aera told her about herself, what went on and who Akane was. She nodded once again when Aera noted that to the newcomer that she stood in an inn. "Hey." Said Akane with a soft voice and then realised that she said that rather late. The skin of Aera broke. What! "Aera, something is happening with your face!" Said Akane anxious as a black liquid flew down Aera's face. She followed Aera to the mirror and was even more surprised when she heard that he meant it literally. Aera passed out and Akane managed not to freak out, she went on her knees and looked if she could do something. She concluded she couldn't so she picked her up, her martial training had made her strong, and laid her back in the bed. She turned to the newcomer. "What should we do?"

Great. This was weird. Regina just smiled as she moved into the room, shifting to lean against the wall even as she watched what was happening with interest and mild confusion. This was definitely an interesting time. "There was no one at the front when I came in," she explained, though that actually wasn't the whole truth. The truth was, Regina hadn't even actually looked. Maybe she was starved for social interaction...

Then Aera went full shape-change, passed out, and the other person - Akane, Aera had said her name was - picked her up and laid her on the bed, then asked Regina what they should do. "I don't know," Regina said honestly. "Never really seen anything like that up close and personal before." She didn't look super concerned, either - but it was more that she didn't know how to react, at all. She did, however, watch Aera closely. Like a scientist and a new experiment.

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as I move my feet towards your body,I can hear this beat, it fills my head upand gets louder and louder

In my eyes, it was like all of the shadows came alive for a moment, only in what I could assume was the conscious part of my mind. I walked around for a bit in my mind, and saw the depth of shadows grow, until it threatened to swallow me whole. I thrashed about, throwing off the shadows that clinged to my skin like an ethereal tar as they slowly crawled toward me, and up my body, managing to drain all color that ever existed in my skin. Every spot the shadows touched left a vaguely blue white color on my skin, until the shadows ripped through the entirety of my self, leaving only my orange hair mildly untouched, as far as I knew. I thrashed as the shadows enveloped my face, until I forced my way up and out from the shadows, and out from unconsciousness, to face the others, who stared at me with curious, or fearful looks.

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Who are we to Ourselves? I did not stutter, nor did I mistake my words. Who are we?Not Who am I to you, but honestly, Who are we to ourselves? What makes me, me? What defines us to ourselves beyond the conceptual vision of others? I wonder who we were, and who we could be...

Akane looked at Aera. "I'm going to get a towel." Said Akane to the other girl in the room without looking at her. She left the room to the bathroom and found a towel and dipped it in water. I should have listened and learned from my mother how to take care of the sick. "Sigh" Seeing friends fall in battle does nothing to me... but a friend in a sickbed does... Might that have to do with Hatoru? She walked back in the room and went to sit on the bed. She dipped the wetted cloth against Aera's forehead. Akane then noticed something. Her skin colour is changing. She didn't know what to say and just looked at the other person for a short while before looking back at Aera.

Of course, it was that moment that Regina realized neither of these two knew her name, and had been asking. Well, then. Lurching to step forward from the wall, she straightened her skirt a bit and moved to take a seat. Speaking quietly, unobtrusively, she said, "My name's Regina. By the way." A faint smile flitted over her lips, before she turned her gaze to Aera. She honestly wasn't good at this sort of thing, so she left Akane to what she was doing.

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as I move my feet towards your body,I can hear this beat, it fills my head upand gets louder and louder